Just another happy rag by one of them broads.

Caleidoscope.

Well, we all know I can do spheres now, so I won’t do any more of them unless I am absolutely stumped and I cant think of anything better to post here. Making the spheres is a lot of fun, though, and I don’t get tired of making them. But it is too easy, all you have to do is find a good image at Wet Canvas and I found one yesterday of church windows. I do want to try other things and I do get inspired by other people’s work. Rima and Neda always make such interesting things and I am always so jealous of what they make! I have to take some time and practice with Paint Shop Pro, but I have been unable to give it the proper amount of time these past couple of days. My friend Joost is staying with us now and I don’t want to neglect him. So, no long hours of sitting behind the computer for me today.

Both Joost and Eduard took the personality type test and I have their permission to share the results with you. Eduard is an INFJ, which means he is introverted, intuitive, feeling and judging. He has:

Which just made me realize that he is not strongly expressive in anything and I wonder what that means?

Joost is an INTJ, so he only differs from Eduard by one letter, which I thought was really interesting. So he is an introverted, intuitive, thinking, judging person. He only differs from me by one letter also, because I am an ISTJ, so I differ more from Eduard than Joost. Joost was surprised with his outcome, but after thinking about it for awhile could see how that might be right.

It is fun to have Joost here as we have hours long conversations about literally everything. There is no subject that we don’t discuss. Mental health is only one of them. Yesterday we talked about slavery and Holland’s role in it and we talked about the Islam and about having Muslim friends and about different cultures and different foods and one thing just kept leading to another. We talked about how strange it is that some black people in the United States have become Muslim, as this is really the religion of the Arabs who sold them into slavery in the first place, and that they early on became Christians, which was the religion of their oppressors and how could they have so willingly adopted it? Or did they adopt this willingly?

Lots of questions about this, no black people to give us the answers. We do live in a homogeneous society here in Limburg. There are some black people from Africa here, but hardly any people from Suriname or the Dutch West Indies. Our history books are pretty silent about our share in the slave trade and that needs to change. Slavery was abolished late here, after the Civil War in the United States, and it kind of makes me feel ashamed, when the Netherlands already was known to be such a tolerant place for other oppressed people. I guess when it isn’t happening right on your doorstep, it is easy to ignore.

Anyway, these are the kinds of conversations Joost and I get into. I told him about Carl Jung and his analysis of the Psyche and how well that still could be applied and he said that he wanted to look into that himself, so I told him what sort of book to look for. Anything discussing the theories of archetypes and personality types. Joost is the curious kind, he will read ‘scientifically’ based books any time. Joost is so shy, but he is a fountain of knowledge once you get him talking.

We went to bed late last night, but I am up early as usual. Which is good, because it gives me some quiet time to sit here and write this and visit other people’s blogs. I read more blogs than I have listed here on the side, some of them I am still making up my mind about. Some people don’t post that often, which is a shame. You want to send them encouraging messages, but then I think that would be very cheeky and so obvious. They would think,”Listen woman, get a life already!”

I tried to read the Saturday paper yesterday. It is always a fat one, like the Sunday paper is in the States, but I fell asleep on the sofa as is usual. I do have the bad habit to do that. It is so nice to feel yourself drift off to sleep. The only way I am staying up to date on the news now is by watching the evening news on TV and that is okay, but you don’t get a lot of the in depth stories. I really need to start reading the BBC news again, but I get so busy reading blogs, that I don’t find the time for it anymore.

People are starting to respond to my invitation to my birthday party and so far everybody is coming. Joost is going to come too. He will make the long trip back again especially for it, so that is nice of him. We have borrowed an air mattress and laid it down in Eduard’s work room instead of having Joost sleep on the sofa. That way he and I both have a bit of privacy when I sit here early in the morning. I can turn on the computer and the lights and tap away on the keyboard without worrying that I’ll wake him up. He has always been good about that in the past, but he is a little bit tall to be sleeping on the sofa anyway, so this is a better solution.

He had not seen me since I had lost 33 kilos and he couldn’t believe his eyes. I guess I make quite a different impression now. I don’t even know myself what a difference it is anymore. How big and fat I used to be. Imagine me having carried all that weight around and I still have 12 kilos to go. Tomorrow my gastric band is going to be filled and I am going to tell them to really fill it up well, because I have lost very little weight these past two months. I can still eat a whole piece of pie and I don’t think that I am supposed to. I know I ‘m not supposed to. The whole trick of the gastric band is that you can only eat very small portions and I am not eating very small portions now. Last night I fell asleep again with a half eaten raisin cracker in my mouth and this morning I had to finish eating the raisins that were left there. I think Eduard puts me down to sleep as I fall asleep sitting up with my book in my lap and my reading glasses on.

Well, now I have to go and make some more coffee and take care of the animals and do things before the guys get up. I have to try and get my own ritual in before these men start getting in my way. Maybe I’ll visit Paint Shop Pro for a real quickie.

Have a great day, people. Ciao…

P.S. I am on day seven of Paint Shop Pro and you can see that I tried some other effects with the church windows and also with a row of three oranges. I like the oranges. I had no idea how an image with them was going to turn o
ut. I have to go to the image library more often and pick out lots of colorful things like this. I wish I could figure out how the rest of the functions worked. I think I need to sit down for a whole day and just figure things out.

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9 Responses

Irene, I love your images you have such a special talent and I do hope you continue developing it. You have taken to Photoshop like a duck to water and I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.

William Wilberforce, who came from Hull(where I live) was the person who fought for the bill which abolished slavery. So in that respect Hull can be said to have led the world.

There are lots of commemorative events here because it is the bicentary anniversary of when he did this, in fact we have just passed a commemorative flower bed with the dates. We have also been to a special exhibition at a museum.

Interesting that you are all showing up as Introverted in some degree. Do you think it is true? If so, how come the 3 of you are having such wonderful open free-ranging conversations? Or am I misunderstanding what introversion is?I think I’m going to stop saying beautiful about all your artwork, it will end up being monotonous. But each one is lovelier than the last.

I also wanted to tell you that there are a lot of misconceptions about Islam, which I am pretty sure you are aware of. It is very diffiult to sort out the real spirituality of religion from “organized” religion. A really good author about the questions you have been asking on your blog is a former nun-turned-skeptic-but-really-kind-and-well-informed is Karen Armstrong. She has several brilliant books. Check them out when you have time.

I have heard of Karen Armstrong, but I have not read any of her books yet. They are on one of my book lists for future reading for when I am feeling more religiously inclined. I do have periods like that! I am sure there are all sorts of misconceptions about all the major religions, that’s what makes them so dangerous to believe in, because we often don’t understand the true meaning of them and they are abused in the name of God.

Nick, what a nice combination of types you are turning out to be. I have written it all down for future reference. I like how you are extrovert and intuitive, those are good qualities to have and you are hardly judging at all. Nice to know you, kid!

I have been feeling religious over the past half year, but it has sort of been like a little manic period in my life and I think I am ‘cured’ for now. I don’t feel very much like believing in a Higher Being so much right now. The fire has become a little flame, it is still there, but burning very low and softly. There will be a time for Karen Armstrong again when the flame grows bigger and brighter.